When drone pilots sitting on US soil attack individuals on the other side of the world, how do they do it? Technology and images - infrared images that pilots use to identify the human target and strike. Sometimes a drone pilot will observe their victim for month using a drone, observing their image, awaiting orders to strike. These are "operative images". What constitutes an "operative image" and what are the ethical issues behind this form of image? Artists, scientists and researchers debated these questions through during an interdisciplinary conference I organised in May 2014. The book pictured above was a designed component accompanying the event.

To empathise with conference participants and understand the subject matter, I became a researcher in this ambiguous, new field of operative imagery. I collaboratively designed an exhibition and authored a book which expressed conference participants ideas on the subject. The aim was to draw the audience into the topic through multiple experiences during the event.